An early departure in the cold morning air was
conveniently delayed for a few hours when I recalled a sign for a Farmer’s
Market this morning. Now, for convenience, the market was located just across
the intersection.

I do enjoy going to farmers market. Santa Fe’s
market was a real market with 80 to 100 vendors selling products that one
expect from a good market with the producers selling their products directly
to the public. The markets that I did come across usually had vendors selling
two or three products. Variety was much better here.

There were the fall vegetables and fruits offered
for sale. From the root products to squash to peppers, from first crop apples,
from home baked breads, from home produced goat cheeses, buffalo meats,
and so on the producers were selling their products.

While my intentions were to maybe buy some apples
and a baked good, I came back with some local goat cheeses, fresh bread,
Navaho slice of baked goods, grapes from 80 year old vines, dried apple
chips, Apple cider and so on. Well, will need some of this for Tuesday’s
train trip.

Cycling the Santa Fe Trail

After yesterday’s experience with thorns,
the first thing out of the motel room and into the bright sun, it was time
to give the tires a good checkout. Two thorns and one difficult piece of
wire to remove later and I was ready to go. Good thing that I had put on
tires with a liner built in.

My thought for today was to cycle south into
the plateau area. From the motel I cycled downtown to the Santa Fe Trail.
The trail is a narrow road lined with trees winding up the base of the mountain
range on the east side of Santa Fe. There is little traffic on this road
which made the ride so much more pleasant.

It was a cold day with temperature around 10
degrees Celsius or less and with a cold wind blowing from the north.

The first hill was an effort but things got
easier after that. Breathing became a bit easier.

The ride was so pleasant with the backdrop of
the mountain ranges and the snow caps. When it came time to cut –off
to the road leading to the plateau, I decided to stay on the trail. The
trail was just too interesting to leave. As the trail climbed it became
colder. There were plenty of birds signing along the way. Yellow and purple
flowers were blooming. The scenery was inspiring.

The pitch became steeper. This was one of the
few times that the granny gear was needed. Over the summit and down a steep
grade the road rolled into a hamlet, Canada de Los Alamos. The hamlet was
a collection of uninteresting and somewhat dilapidated houses with no stores
or gas station. Along the road there was a sign indicating that the road
would dead end.

So, time to turn around and do the climb again.
On the other side of the crest there was a long ride without any peddling.

It was a satisfying ride with some climbing
and much interesting scenery and vistas. Had to change clothing a few times
along the ride depending on elevation, wind direction, and direction of
cycling.

After the cycle it was time for a walk downtown.
The wind was dropping and the sun’s heat intensity increased.